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A FRIENDLY VOICE 



ENG-L^ND 



AMERICAN AFFAIRS. 



PLEASE READ AND CIRCULATE. 



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NEW YORK: 
Wil. C. BRYANT cfe CO., PRINTERS, 41 NASSAU ST., COU. LIBERTT. 

18 6 2. 



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Mr 3 WO 



MESSRS. COBDEN AND BRIGHT ON THE 
AMERICAN QUESTION. 



Letter from Mr. Cobden^ and Speech of Mr. Bright^ on the 
American Question, at the hanquet given to the latter aZ 
Bochdale on the evening of Dec. Uh, 1861. 

MR. COBDEN'S LETTER. 

"MiDncRST, Dec. 2d, 1S61. 

" Dear Sir, — I need not assure you with what pleasure I 
should accept your invitation to be present at the eutertainment 
which is to be offered by his neighbors to my friend, Mr. Bright. 
It tempts me sorely, and yet I will not break the rule by which 
1 have prohibited myself from attending any public meeting 
tliis winter, with the view of husbanding my health for the 
labors of the coming session. 

" The circumstances of the present moment make me regret 
my inability to meet my constituents. I should have been glad 
to have expressed my views on the public questions of the day, 
especially iu reference to our relations with the United States, 
to which a recent event has given a sudden importance. I 
allude, of course, to the capture of Messrs. Slidell and Mason, 
on board a Britisli steamer. On this subject I should have 
urged the propriety of suspending a final judgment until we 
had had time to hear whether the American Government had 
authorized this act of their naval officer, and if so, on what 
ground they justified the proceeding. 

" I have seen with some surprise the assumption in certain 
quarters that from the moment when our legal authorities have 
given their opinion on the point at issue, the question is settled, 



4 



and that we Lave only to proceed to enforce their award. It is 
forgotten that the matter in dispute ninst be decided not by 
British but by international law, and that if the President's 
Government should assume the responsibility of the act of their 
naval officer, they will claim for the reasoning and the preced- 
ents urged by their legal advisers at Washington, the same con- 
sideration which they are bound to give to the arguments of the 
law officers of the British Crown. To refuse this would be to 
deny that equality before the law which is the rule of all civil- 
ized states, and to arrogate for ourselves, as interested parties, 
arbitrary and dictatorial powers. Had I been able to meet my 
constituents, 1 should have in their name, and with I know their 
full concurrence, repudiated the language of those public Vv'rit- 
ers who, without waiting till both parties have had a hearing, 
have given utterance to threats, which, if they are to be sup- 
posed to emanate from the British people, must render compli- 
ance on the part of the American Government difficult, if not 
impossible. 

" Whatever be the issue of the legal controversy, this is a 
question which we cannot hope to bring to a more satisfactory 
issue by an appeal to arms. We endeavored to impose our 
laws, by force, on the Americans when they were three millions 
of colonists, and we know the result. Again, in 1812, when we 
were belligerents, and the United States, with eight millions of 
people, were neutral, and after we had for years subjected their 
vessels to search and seizure — which will now probably be ad- 
duced as precedents to justify the recent proceedings on their 
part — a v,'ar broke out on this very question of belligerent rights 
at sea, which, after two years of mutual slaughter and pillage, 
was terminated by a treaty of peace in which, by tacit agree- 
ment, no allusion was made to the original cause of the war. 
With these examples, can we reasonably hope by force of arms 
to compel the twenty millions of Americans who are now 
united under the Federal Government to accept our exclusive 
interpretation of the law of nations 1 

" Besides, the mere settlement of the question of the Trent 
does not dispose of our difficulties and dangers. AVe require a 
complete revision of the international maritime code, with a 
view to its simplification, and to bring it into harmony with the 



altered circumstances of the age ; and to this, it must in justice 
be admitted, the Americans have not been the obstacle. More 
than five years ago the government of "Washington proposed to 
the European powers to exempt private property at sea from 
capture by armed vessels of every kind — a proposal which, in 
his message to Congress, President Pierce stated had been 
favorably received by Russia and Franco, but which was re- 
jected by our government, acting in opposition to the unanimous 
opinion of the commercial bodies of this country. Subsequently, 
Mr. Buchanan's government enlarged this offer by proposing 
to abolish blockades so far as purely mercantile ports were 
concerned, but again this met with no favor from our govern- 
ment. The details of this plan are but imperfectly known, as 
no official documents have been given to the British public. 
But after perusing the statement made by our foreign minister 
in the House of Commons, on the IStli February last, the pain- 
ful impression is left on my mind that had this offer of the 
United States Government, instead of being opposed, been 
promptly and frankly accepted by England, our commerce with 
the southern ports of that country might have at this moment 
been uninterrupted, and Lancashire would hardly have felt any 
inconvenience from the civil war in America. I was absent 
from Parliament when these great questions were incidentally 
referred to, for all serious discussion on the subject seems to 
have been discouraged by the government; but 1 think I shall 
be able to show, on a future occasion, that no other country is 
interested to half the extent of England in carrying out these 
propositions of the United States Government. I would go a 
step further, and exempt from visitation, search, and obstruction 
of every kind, all neutral merchant ships on the ocean or open 
sea, in time of war as well as in time of peace. The commerce 
of the world has become too vast, and its movements too rapid, 
to permit of merchant vessels of all nations being everywhere 
liable to search and detention, merely because two powers in some 
quarter of the globe choose to be at war. This state of tilings 
might have been endurable some centuries ago, when war was 
regarded as the normal state of society, and Avhen the neutrality 
of a great power was almost unknown, but it is utterly intoler- 
able in an ao;e of steam naviiration and free trade. But let it 



6 

not be forgotten l\y the Biitisli public, in the present moment of 
irritation, that England has always been, and still is, the great 
obstacle to a liberal and humane modification of the maritime 
law of nations in the interest of neutrals, and that her assent 
alone is wanting to sweep the mustj maxims of PufFendorff and 
the rest into that oblivion -which has happily engulphed the 
kindred absurdities of protection. 

"I will not attempt, within tb.e space of a letter, to touch 
upon the other issues involved in this deplorable civil war. 
There is one point only on Avliich I will add a remark. An 
opinion seems to be entertained by some parties here and on the 
continent that it is in the power of the Governments of England 
and France to control, if not put an end to, the conflict. I en- 
tertain the strongest conviction, on the contrarj", that any act 
of intervention on the part of a European power, whetlier by 
breaking the blockade, or a premature acknowledgment of the 
independence of the South, or in any other way, can have no 
other effect but to aggravate and protract the quarrel. History 
tells us how greatly the horrors of the French revolution sprung 
from the intervention of the foreigner. Were a similar element 
thrown in to infuriate the An]erican contest, every restraining 
motive for forbearance, eveiy thought of compromise or concil- 
iation would be cast to the winds ; the Korth would avail itself of 
the horrible weapon always ready at hand, and by calling in the 
aid of the negro would carry the fire and sword of a servile war 
into the South, and make it a desolation and a wilderness. So 
far from expecting that the raw material of our great industry 
would reach us sooner in consequence of such an intervention, 
I believe the more probable result would be the destruction of 
the cotton plant itself througliout the Southern States of the 
Union. 

" I cannot conclude without thanking you for your kind 
offer of hospitality ; and I remain, my dear sir, yours very 
truly, 

" Ed. Cobden. 

" J.N-o. T. Pagan, Esq., Mayor." 



In replying to tlie toast of liis health, Mk. Bkight, after somo 
preliminary remarks, said : You have, by this great kindness 
that you have done me on this occasion, given a proof that in 
the main you do not disapprove of my public labors — (cheers) 
— that at least you are willing to express the opinion that tho 
motives by which I have been actuated have been honest and 
honorable to myself; and that that course has not been entirely 
without service to my country. (Cheers.) Coming to this 
meeting, or to any similar meeting, I always find that the sub- 
jects of discussion appear to be infinite, and far more than it is 
possible to treat. Now, in these times in which we live, by the 
inventions of the telegraph, and the steamboat, and the railroad, 
and the multiplication of newspapers, we seem continually to 
stand as on the top of an exceeding high mountain, from which 
we behold all the kingdoms of the earth, and all the glories of 
them, and unhappily not only all their glories, but their crimes, 
and their follies, and their calamities. Seven years ago our 
eyes were turned with anxious expectation to a remote corner 
of Europe, where five nations were contending in bloody strife 
for an object which possibly hardly one of them comprehended — 
an object, if they did comprehend it, all sensible men amongst 
them must have known to be absolutely impracticable. Four 
years ago, looking still further into the East, and we see there a 
gigantic revolt in a great dependency of the British crown, 
arising mainly from gross neglect, and from the incapacity of 
England up to that moment to govern a country which it had 
known how to conquer. Two years ago we looked south, to the 
plains of Lombardy, and saw a strife there in which every man 
in England took a strong interest, and we have welcomed as the 
result of that strife the addition of a new and great kingdom to 
the list of European States. (Hear, hear.) Now your eyes are 
turned in a contrary direction, and we look to the "West, and 
there we see a struggle in progress of the very highest interest 
to England, and to humanity at large. We see tliere a nation, 
vvhich I shall call the Transatlantic English nation, the inheritor 
and partaker of tho historic glories of this nation. We see it 
torn with intestine broils, and sufi'ering from calamities from 
which for more than a century past — in fact, for nearly two cen- 
turies past — this country has been exempt. Tliat struggle is of 
especial interest to us. We remember the description which 



8 

one of our great poets gives of Rome in its condition of decay. 
lie describes it as " Lone mother of dead empires." But Eng- 
land is the living mother of great nations on the American and 
on the Australian continent, and she promises to belt the world 
with her knowledge, her civilization, and even something more 
than the freedom that she herself enjoys. (Cheers.) Eighty- 
five years ago, about the time when some of our oldest townsmen 
were very little children, there were on the E"orth American 
continent colonies, mainly of Englishmen, containing about three 
millions of souls. Those colonies we have seen a year ago con- 
stitute the United States of North America, and comprising a 
population of not less than thirty millions of souls. We know that 
in agriculture and in manufactures, with the exception of this 
kingdom, there is no country in the world which may be placed in 
advance with regard to those arts of the United States. With re- 
gard to inventions, I believe within the last thirty years we 
have received more useful inventions from the United States 
than we have received from all the countries of Europe. In 
that country there are probably ten times as many miles of tele- 
graph as there are in this country. There are at least five or 
six times as many miles of railways. The tonnage of that 
nation, of its shipping is at least equal to ours, if it does not 
exceed ours. The prisons of that country — for even in coun- 
tries the most favored so far, prisons are needful — the prisons of 
that country have been models for the other nations of Europe ; 
and many European nations and governments have sent com- 
missions beyond the Atlantic to inquire into the admirable sys- 
tems of education established universally in their free schools 
throughout the free and northern States. If I were to speak 
of them in a religious aspect, I should say that within that 
period of time to which their short history goes back, there is 
nothing on the face of the earth, and never has been besides, 
to equal the magnificent arrangement of churches and minis- 
ters, and of all the appliances which are thought necessary for 
a nation to teach morality and Christianity to the people. 
Besides all this, when I state that for many years past the 
annual public expenditure of tlie government of that country 
has been somewhere between ten and fifteen millions, I need 
not perhaps say further, that there has existed in that country, 
amongst all the people, an amount of comfort and prosperity, 



of abonnding plenty, such as I Ijclievo no other country in the 
workl, in any age, has disphaycd. This is a very line, but still a 
very true picture, but which has another side, to -which I must 
advert. Tliere has been one great feature in tliat cou'.itry — one 
great contrast which has been pointed to by all men who have 
commented upon the United States — as a feature of danger and 
a contrast calculated to give pain. You have had in that coun- 
try the utmost liberty to the white man, but bondage and 
degradation to the black man. ISTow, rely upon it that, where- 
over Christianity lives and flourishes, there must grow up from 
it necessarily a conscience which is hostile to any oppression 
and any wrong ; and, therefore, from the hour when the United 
States constitution was formed, so long as it left there this 
great evil, then comparatively small, but now become so great, 
which left there the seeds of that which an American statesman 
has so ably described in that irrepressible conflict of which now 
the whole world is witness. (Cheers.) It has been a common 
thing for men disposed to carp at the American States to point 
at this blot upon their fair fame, and to compare it with the 
boasted declaration of equality in their deed and declaration of 
independence ; but we must recollect who sowed this seed of 
trouble, and how and by whom it has been, cherished. Without 
dwelling upon this for more than a moment, I should like to 
read to you a paragraph from instructions proposed to be given 
to the Virginian delegates to Congress in the month of August, 
1774, and from the pen of Mr. Jefferson, perhaps the ablest 
man produced in the United States at the time, and actively 
engaged in its affairs, and who was afterwards, I believe for two 
periods. President of the republic. He writes this from a Slave 
State — from the State of Virginia : — " For the most trifling 
reasons, and sometimes for no conceivable reason at all, his 
Majesty has rejected laws of the most salutary tendency. The 
abolition of domestic slavery is the great object of desire in 
those colonies where it was unhappil}^ introduced in their infant 
state. But previous to the enfranchisement of the slaves, we 
hear it is necessary to exclude all further importations from 
Africa. Yet our repeated attempts to effect this by prohibi- 
tions, and by imposing duties which might amount to 
prohibition, have been hitherto defeated by his Majesty's 



10 

negative, tlius preferring the immediate advantage of a 
few British corsairs to the lasting interests of the Ameri- 
can States, and to the rights of human nature, deeply 
wounded by this infamous practice." (Loud cheers.) I read 
that merely to show tluit, two years before tlic declaration of 
indej^endence was signed, Mr. Jefferson, acting on behalf of 
those he represented in Virginia, wrote that protest against the 
British Government which prevented the colonists abolishing 
the slave-trade, preparatory to the abolition of slavery itself. 
The United States constitution left the slave question for every 
State to manage for itself. It was a question then too dithcult 
to settle apparently ; but every man had the hope and belief 
that in a few years slavery would become of itself extinct. Then 
there happened that great event in the annals of manufactures 
and commerce ; it was discovered that in those states that 
article wliicli we in this country so much depend upon could be 
pi'oduced of the best cjuality, enough for manufacture, and at a 
moderate price ; and, from that day to this, the growth of cotton 
has increased there, its consumption has increased here, and a 
value which no man dreamed of wlien Jefferson wrote that pa- 
per has been given to slaves and slave industry, and thus it has 
grown up to that gigantic institution which now threatens either 
its own overthrow, or the overthrow of that which is a million 
times more valued — the great Kepublic of the United States. 
(Loud cheers.) In the crisis to which we have arrived now, I 
say that we, after all, are as much interested in the crisis of the 
North, as if I was making this speecJi in the city of Boston or 
New York. The crisis which has now arrived, was inevitable ; 
I say that the conscience of the North, never satisfied with the 
institution, was constantly bringing some men forward who 
took a more extreme view of the question, and there grew up 
naturally a section — it may be not a very numerous one — in 
favor of abolition. A great and powerful party resolved at last 
upon the restraining and control of slavery, so that it should 
not extend beyond the States and the area which it now occu' 
pies. But now, if we look at the Government of the United 
States, almost ever since the union, we shall find that the 
Soutliern power has been mostly dominant there. If you take 
six-and-lhirt}" years after the formation of the constitution, you 



11 

will find that for tliirtj-two of those years every President was 
a Southern man ; and if you take the period from 1823 until 
1860, you will find that, on every election of President, the 
South voted in the majority. Well, we know what an election 
is in the United States for President. There is a most extended 
suffrage and there is a ballot-hox. The President and the 
House of Representatives are elected by the same electors, and 
generally they are elected at the same time ; and it follows, 
therefore, almost inevitably, that the House of Representatives 
is in complete accord in public policy with the President for 
the time being. Every four years there springs, from the vote 
created by the whole people, a President over that great nation. 
I think the world affords no finer spectacle than this. I think 
it afibrds no higher dignity, that there is no greater object of 
ambition on the political stage on which men are permitted to 
move. You may point, if you like, to hereditary royalty, to 
crov/ns coming down through successive ages in the same fam- 
ilies, to thrones based on prescription or on conquest, to scep- 
tres vv'ielded over veteran legions, or subject reabns; but to my 
mind there is nothing more worthy of reverence and obedience, 
nothing more sacred than the authority of the freely chosen 
magistrate of a great and free people. (Loud cheers.) And if 
there be on earth and amongst men any right divine to govern, 
surely it rests with the ruler so chosen and so appointed. 
(Cheers.) This process of a great election vras gone through a 
year ago, and the South, that had so long been successful, found 
• itself defeated. That defeat was followed instantly by secession, 
insurrection, and war. In the multitude of articles which have 
been brought before us in the newspapers within the last few 
months, I have no doubt you have seen, as I have seen, it 
stated, that this question was very much like that upon which 
the colonies originally revolted against the Crown of England. 
It is amusing, however, how little many newspaper writers 
know, and how little they think you know. (Laughter.) 
When the war of independence commenced in America — 
ninety years ago, or more — there was no representation there 
at all. The question was whether a ministry in Downing street, 
and a corrupt and boroughmongering parliament at "W estmm- 
stor, should impose taxes upon three millions of English sub- 



12 

jects, wlio had left their conntiy and established themselves in 
North America. But now the question is not of under-repre- 
sentation, or of no representation, because, as is perfectly no- 
torious, the representation of the South is not only complete 
but in excess, for in distributing the number of representatives 
to the number of people, w])ich is done every ten years in the 
United States, three out of every five slaves are counted for 
the South, as if they were white men and free men, and the 
number of members given to them is so much greater than it 
would be if the really free men and white men only were 
counted ; and it has followed from that that the South has had 
in the House of Representatives about twenty members more 
than it ought in right to have, upon the principle upon which 
members were apportioned to the Northern and the Free 
States. Therefore, you will see that there is no kind of com- 
parison between the state of things when the colonies revolted 
and the state of things cow, when this fearful and wicked in- 
surrection has broken out. But there is another cause which 
is sometimes in England assigned for this great misfortune, 
which is the protective theories in operation in the United 
States, and the maintenance of the high tariff. It happens in 
regard to this that no American, certainly no one I ever met 
with, attributes the disaster to the Union to that cause. .It is 
an argument made use of by ignorant Englishmen, but never 
by informed Americans. Have not I already shown yon that 
the South during almost the whole existence of the Union has 
been dominant at Washington? and during that period the- 
tariff has existed. There has been dissatisfaction occasionally 
with it, there can be no doubt, and at times the tariff has been 
higher than was thought just, or reasonable, or necessary, by 
some of the States of the South. But the very first act of the 
United States which levies duties on imports — passed immedi- 
ately after the Union was formed — recites that it is necessary 
for the encouragement and protection of manufactures to levy 
the duties " which follow ;" and during the war with England, 
from 1812 to 1815, the people of the United States had to pay 
for all the articles they brought from Europe many times over 
the natural cost of those articles, on account of the interruption 
of the traffic by the English nation ; and when the war was 



13 

over, it was felt by everybody desirable that they should en- 
courage manufactures in their own country ; and seeing that 
England was at that precise moment passing a law to prevent 
any wheat coming from America until wheat in England 
had risen to the price of S4s. per quarter, wo may feel quite 
satisfied that the doctrines of protection originally entertained 
did not find the slightest favor at the close of the war in 
1S15. Now, ihere is one remarkable point with regard to 
this matter which should not be forgotten : Twelve months 
ago, at the meeting of the Congress of the United States, 
which is held on the first Monday in December, there were 
various proposals made, and committee meetings of various 
kinds held, to try and devise some mode of settling the 
question between the jSTorth and South, so that the dis- 
union might not go on ; but though I read carefully 
everything that was published in the English newspapers 
from the United States on that side, I do not recollect that 
in any single instance the question of the tariff was re- 
ferred to, or that any change was proposed or suggested 
in that matter as likely to have any efiect upon 
the question of secession. Now, there is another point, 
too : That whatever be the influence of tariffs upon 
the United States, it is as pernicious to the West as to the 
South ; and further, Louisiana, which is a Southern State, and 
a seceded State, has always voted along with Pennsylvania, 
and, until last year, in favor of protection for its sugar ; whilst 
Pennsylvania wished protection for its coal and iron. If the 
tariff was onerous and grievous, was that a reason for this great 
insurrection? Has tliere ever a country had a tarifl' — especially 
in the article of food — more onerous and more cruel than that 
which we had in this country, twenty years ago? (Cheers.) 
"We did not secede. We did not rebel. What we did was to 
raise money for the purpose of distributing to all the people of 
this country perfect information upon that question ; and many 
men, as you know, devoted all their labors for several yaws to 
teach the great and wise doctrines of free trade to the people 
of England. Why, the price of a single gunboat, tlie keep of 
a single regiment, the garrison of a single fort, the cessation of 
their trade for a single day, costs more than it would have cost 



14 

them lO spread all over the intelligent people of tlie United 
States the most complete statement of the whole question ; and 
West and South, having no interest in protection, could unitedly 
have revised, or if need had been, could have repealed the 
tariti' altogether. Xo ; the question is a very diiferent affair — a 
more grave question. It is the question of slavery. (Hear, 
hear.) For tliirty years it has been constantly coming to the 
surface, disturbing social life, and overthrowing almost all 
political harmony in the working of the United States. In the 
North there is no secession, there is no collision ; but this dis- 
turbance and this insurrection was found wholly in the South, 
and in the Slave States ; therefore, I think the man who sajs, 
otherwise, and who contends that it is the tariff, or an^'thing 
whatsoever other than slavery, is either himself deceived, or he 
endeavors to deceive others. The object of the South is this : 
To escape from the majority which wishes to limit the area of 
slavery. (Hear, hear.) They wish to found a Slave State, free 
from the influences and the opinions of freedom. The Free 
States in the North, therefore, now stand before the world the 
advocates and defenders of freedom and civilization. The 
Slave States of the South offer themselves for the recognition 
of Christian nations based upon the foundation, the unchange- 
able foundation in their eyes, of slavery and barbarism. (Hear, 
hear.) 1 will not discuss the guilt of rnen who, ministers of a 
great nation, only last year conspired to overthrow it. I will 
not point out or recapitulate the statements of the fraudulent 
manner in which thej' disposed of the funds in the national ex- 
chequer. I will not point out by name any of the men in this 
conspiracy, whom history will designate by titles that they won't 
like to hear ; but I say that slavery has sought to break up the 
most free government in tlie world, and to found a new State 
in this 19th century, whose corner stone is tlie perpetual bond- 
age of millions of men. (Hear, hear.) Having thus described 
what appears to me briefly the little tru-th of this matter, Vv'hat 
is the course that England would be expected to pursue ? We 
should be neutral so far as regards mingling in the strife. We 
were neutral in the strife in Ital}^, but we were not neutral in 
opinion, or in sympaty. (Hour, hear.) But you know perfectly 
well that throughout the whole of Italy, at this moment, there 



15 

is a feeling that, tliough no shot was fired from an Eno-lij^li 
ship, tliongh no English soldier trod their soil, the oj)inion 
of England was potent in Europe, and did much for the 
creation of the Italian kingdom. (Hear, hear.) With reo-ard 
to the United States, you know how much we l)ate slavery — that 
is, awhile ago you thought you knew that we had given 
£20,000,000, that is a million a year nearly in taxes, to free 
800,000 slaves in the English colonies. You know, or you 
thought you knew, how much you were in love with free gov- 
ernment everywhere, although it might not take precisely the 
form of our government — free government in Italy, free gov- 
ernment in Switzerland, free government, nnder republican 
forms, in the United States of America ; and with all this every 
man would have said that England would wish the American 
Union to be prosperous and eternal. Now, suppose we turn 
our eyes to the East, to the Empire of Russia, for a moment. 
In Paissia, as you know, there has been one of the most import- 
ant and magnificent changes of policy ever seen in any couutiy 
within the last year or two. The present Emperor of Russia, 
following the wishes of his fathei', has insisted upon t'le aboli- 
tion of serfdom in that empire — (hear, bear) — and tv/enty-three 
millions of human beings, lately serfs, little better th;in real 
slaves, have been put in a path of elevation to the ranks of 
freedom. (Cheers.) Now, suppose that the millions of serfs of 
Russia bad been chiefly in the south of Russia. We hear that 
the nobles of Russia, to whom these serfs belong in a great 
measure, have been very hostile to this change, and that there 
has ever been. some danger that the peace of that empire might 
be disturbed during these changes. Suppose tliese nobles, for 
the purpose of maintaining in perpetuity the serfdom of Russia, 
and barring out twenty-three millions of tlieir fellow-creatures 
from the rights of freedom, had established a great and secret 
conspiracy, and had risen in a great and dangerous insurrection 
against the Russian Government, I say that the people of Eng- 
land, although but seven years ago they were in mortal combat 
with Russia, in the south of Europe — I believe that at this mo- 
ment they would have prayed Heaven in all sincerity and fer- 
vor to give strength to the arm and success to the good wishes 
of the Emperor, and that that vile and pernicious insurrection 



16 

migLt be suppressed. (Applause.) Now, let us look a little at 
what has been said and done in this country since the period 
wheu Parliament rose in the beginning- of August. There have 
been two speeches to which I wish to refer in terms of approba 
tion. The Duke of Argjle, a member of the present govern- 
ment — and though I have not the smallest personal acquaint- 
ance with him, I am free to say I believe him to be one of the 
most intelligent and liberal of his order — (hear, hear) — the 
Duke of Argyle delivered a speech which was fair and friendly 
to the Government of the United States. Lord Stanley — (hear) 
— only a fortnight ago made a speech which it is impossible to 
read without remarking the thought, the liberality, and the 
wisdom by which it is distinguished. He doubted, it is true, 
whether the Union could be restored — but a man need not be 
hostile, and must not necessarily be friendly, to doubt that or 
the contrary — but he spoke with fairness and friendliness of the 
Government of the United States, and he said they were right 
and justifiable in the course they took — (hear) — and he gave a 
piece of advice, now more important than at the moment when 
he gave it, that in the various incidents and accidents of a strug- 
gle of this nature, it became a people like this to be very mode- 
I'ate and calm, and to avoid getting into that feeling of irritation 
which sometimes arises and sometimes leads to danger. (Hear, 
hear.) I mention these two speeches as from noblemen of great 
distinction in this country — speeches which I believe would, 
have a beneficial effect on the other side of the Atlantic. Lord 
John Kussell, in the House of Commons, during the last session, 
made a speech, too, in which he rebuked the impertinence of a 
young member of the House of Commons, who spoke about tlie 
bursting of the bubble republic. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) It 
was a speech worthy of the best days of Lord John Hussell. 
(Cheers.) At a later period he spoke at ITewcastle, on an occa- 
sion something like this, when the inhabitants, or some portion of 
tlie inhabitants of that town, invited him to a public dinner. He 
described the contest in words something like these (I speak only 
from memory) : " That the North is contending for empire, and 
t)ie South for independence." Did he mean that the North 
was contending for empire, as Enghand when making some 
fresh conquest? If he meant that, what he said was not true. 



17 

But I recollect Lord John Russell, in the House of Commons 
some years ago, on an occasion when I had made some obser- 
vations as to the unreasonable expenditure of the colonies, and 
complained that the people of England should be taxed to de- 
fray the expenses which the colonies themselves were well able 
to defray, turned to me, with a sharpness which was not neces- 
sary, and said, " The honorable member has no objection to 
make a great empire into a small one, but I have." Perhaps 
if he lived in the United States, if he were a member of the 
Senate or House of Representatives there, he would doubt 
whether it was his duty to consent at once to the destruction 
of a great country ; to its separation, it may be, into two hostile 
camps ; or whether he would not try what means were open to 
him, and would be open to the government, to avert such an 
unlocked for and dire calamity. There were other speeches 
that have been made. I will not refer to them by any quota- 
tion. I will not, out of pity to some of the men who have 
Tittered them — (laughter) — I will not bring their names even 
before you, or give to them an endurance which I hope they 
will not have — (hear, hear) — but I will leave them in that ob- 
scurity which they so richly merit. (Laughter) But now you 
know as well as I do, that of all the speeches made at the end 
of the session of Parliament by public men and politicians, the 
majority of them displayed either strange ignorance of Ameri- 
can affairs or a strange absence of that cordiality and friend- 
ship which, I maintain, our American kinsmen have a right to 
look for at our hands. (Hear, hear.) And if we part from the 
speaker and turn to the writers, what do we find there? We 
find that that journal which is reputed abroad, and has hitherto 
been reputed at home, as the most powerful representative of 
English opinion, at least of the richer classes — we find that in 
that very newspaper there has not been, since Mr. Lincoln took 
oflSce in March last, as President of the United States, one fair, 
and honorable, and friendly article on American afi'airs in its 
columns. (Hear, hear.) Some of you, I dare say, read it — 
(laughter) — but fortunately now every district is so admirably 
supplied with local newspapers, that I trust in all times to come 
the people of England will drink of purer streams nearer home 
— (cheers and laughter) — and not of streams which are mudded 
2 



18 

by part}^ feeling, political intrigue, and by many motives tha 
tend to anj^thing ratlier than the enlightenment and advantage 
of the people. (Hear, hear.) Now, it is said — why this war 
Why not separate peaceably ? Why this fratricidal strife? ], 
hope they will all be against fratricidal strife in every respect. 
If it be true that God has made of one blood all the families ol 
man to dwell on the face of all the earth, it must be a fratri- 
cidal strife whether we are slaughtering Russians in the Crimea, 
or bombarding the towns on the seacoast of the United States 
(Hear, hear.) Now, no one will expect that I should stand 
forward as the advocate of war, or the defender of that great 
sum of all crime which is involved in war ; but when you are 
discussing a question of this nature it is only fair you should 
discuss it upon principles which are acknowledged not only in 
the country where the strife is being carried on, but universally 
acknowledged in this country. When I discussed the question 
of the Russian war seven or eight years ago, I always discussed 
it on the principles which were avowedly those of the govern- 
ment of the people of England, and I took my texts from the 
blue books v/hich were presented before me. 1 take the liberty 
of doing that now in this case. I say that, looking at the prin- 
ciples avowed in England, and at all its policy, there is no man, 
that is not absolutely a non-resistant in every sense, who can 
fairly challenge the conduct of the American Government in 
this war. It is a curious thing to find that the party in this 
country which on every j^iblic question is in favor of war at 
any cost, when it comes to speak of the duty of the Government 
of the United States, is in favor of peace at any price. (Hear.) 
I want to know whether it has ever been admitted by politi- 
cians and statesmen that great nations can be broken up at any 
time by the will of any particular section of those nations ? It 
has been tried occasionally in Ireland — (laughter) — and if it had 
succeeded, history would have said with very good cause. 
(Hear, hear.) But if anybody tries now to get up a secession or 
insurrection in Ireland, it would be less disturbing in everything 
than the secession in the United States, because there is a 
boundary which nobody can dispute. I am quite sure the 
Times newspaper would have sent a special correspondent, who 
would have described, glowingly and exultingly, the manner in 



19 



which the Irish insurrectionists were cut down and made an 
end of. Let any man try in this country to restore the flept- 
arcliy. Do you think that any minister in this country would 
think it a thing to be tolerated for a moment ? But if you will 
look at the map of tlie United States, you will see that there is 
no country in the world, probably at this moment, whore any 
plan of separation between North and South, as far as the ques- 
tion of boundary is concerned, is so surrounded with insur- 
mountable difficulties. For example : Maryland is a Slave 
State, but Maryland has, by avei-y large majority, voted for the 
Union. Would Maryland go North, or South'? Kentuclvy is 

Slave State, and one of the finest States in the Union, and con- 
taining a fine people. Kentucky has voted for the Union, and 
has been invaded from the South. Missouri is a Slave State. 
Missouri has not seceded, but has been invaded from the South, 
and there is a secession party in that State. There are parts of 
Yii'ginia which form themselves into a new State, resolving to 
adhere to the North ; and there is no doubt a considerable 
Northern and Union feeling in the State of Tennessee; and 

have no doubt that there is in every other State; — indeed, I 
am not sure that there is not now within the sound of my voice 
a citizen of the United States — (hear) — a citizen of the State of 
Alabama, who can tell you that there the question of secession 
has never been put to the vote, and tliat there are great num- 
bers of most reasonable and thoughtful, just, men in the State, 
who entirely deplore the condition of things there existing. 
Well, then, what would you do with all these States, and with 
what may be called the loyal portion of the population of these 
States ? Would you allow them to be dragooned into this in- 
surrection, and into the formation of a new State, to which they 
themselves are hostile ? But what would you do with the city 
of Washington ? Washington is in a Slave State. Would any- 
body have advised President Lincoln and his cabinet, and the 
members of Congress, of the House of Representatives and 

Eenate from the North, with their wives and children, and 
verybody else who was not in favor of the South, that they 
[lould set oflT on their melancholy pilgrimage northward, leav- 
ing a capital hallowed by such associations, having its name 
from the father of their country,— would you say that they 



20 

sliould travel northward, and- leave "Washington to the South 
because Washington was situated in a Slave State ? Again, 
what do you saj to the Mississippi River ? Have you seen it on 
the map — tlie father of waters — rolling that gigantic stream to 
the ocean ; do you think the fifty millions who will one day 
occupy the banks of that river to the northward — do you think 
that they would consent that that great stream should roll 
through a foreign, and, it might be, a hostile state? (Hear, 
hear, and cheers.) And more, there are four millions of negroes 
in subjection. For them the American Union is directly 
responsible. They are not secessionists. They are now, as they 
always were, legally, not subjects nor citizens, but under the 
care and power of the Government of the United States. Would 
you consent that these should be delivered up to the tender 
mercies of their taskmasters, the defenders of slavery, as an ever- 
lasting institution ? Well, if all had been surrendered without a 
struggle, what then ? What would the writers in this newspaper, 
and other newspapers, have said ? If a bare rock in your 
empire, that would not keep a single goat alive, be touched 
by any foreign power, why, the whole empire is aroused to 
resistance. And if there be, from accident or from passion, 
the smallest insult to your flag, what do your newspaper writers 
say on the subject, and what is said in all your towns, and on 
all your exchanges ? I will tell you what they would have 
said if the government of the United States and the North had 
taken their insidious and dishonest advice. They would have 
said that the great republic is a failure, that democracy has 
murdered patriotism, that history afibrds no example of such 
meanness or such cowardice, and they would have heaped un- 
measured obloquy and contempt upon the people and the 
government that had taken that course. Well, but they tell 
you — these candid friends of the United States — they tell you 
that all freedom is gone, that the Habeas Corpus Act, if they 
•ever had one, is known no longer, and that any man may be 
arrested at the dictum of the President or the Secretary of 
State. In 184:8 you recollect, many of you, that there was a 
small insurrection in Ireland. It was an absurd thing alto- 
gether; but what was done then? Why, I saw in one night in 
the House of Commons a bill for the suspension of the Habeas 



21 

Corpus Act pass througli all its stages. "What more did I see ? 
I saw a bill brouglit in by the Whig government of that day, 
Lord John Russell being premier, wbicli made speaking against 
tbe government and against the crown, which up to that time 
had been sedition, felony, and it was only by tbe greatest exer- 
tion of a few members that that act, witb that particular, was 
limited to a period of two years. In the same session, a bill 
was brouglit in, called an Alien Act, wbich empowered the 
Home Secretary to take any foreigner whatsoever, not a natu- 
ralized Englishman, and in twenty-four hours to send him out 
of the country ; and although a man might have committed no 
crime, this might be done to him apparently on suspicion. 
But suppose that an insurgent army had been so near London 
that you could see its outposts from every suburb of London, 
what then do you think would have been the regard of the 
Government of Great Britain for personal liberty if it interfered 
with the necessity, and, as they might think, the salvation of 
the State 1 (Hear.) I recollect, in 1848, when the Habeas 
Corpus Act was suspended, that a number of persons in Liver- 
pool, men there of position and wealth, presented a petition to 
the House of Commons praying — what? That the Habeas 
Corpus Act should not be suspended ? 'No ; they were not con- 
tent with having it suspended in Leland, they prayed the House 
of Commons to extend the suspension to Liverpool. (Laughter.) 
I recollect at that time — I am sure my friend Mr. Wilson will 
bear me out in what I say — that the Mayor of Liverpool tele- 
graphed to the Mayor of Manchester, and messages were sent 
to London nearly every hour. The Mayor of Manchester heard 
from the Mayor of Liverpool that certain L-ishmen in Liver- 
pool, conspirators and fellow-conspirators with those in L'eland, 
were going to burn the cotton warehouses of Liverpool and the 
cotton mills of Lancashire. (Laughter.) I took that petition 
from the table of the House of Commons and read it, and 
handed it over to a statesman of great eminence, who has but 
just been removed from among us — a man not second to any 
in the House of Commons for his knowledge of affairs and great 
capacity — I refer to the late Sir James Graham. I handed to 
him this petition ; he read it, and after he read it he rose from 
his seat and laid it on the table with a gesture of abhorrence 



9,9, 



and disgust. (Hear, hear.) ISTow, tl^at iras a petition from the 
town of Liverpool, in wliich some persons had been making 
themselves ridiculous by their conduct in this matter. (Cheers.) 
There is one more point I will allude to. It has been said 
how much better it would be, not for the United States, but 
for us, if these states should be divided. I recollect meeting 
a gentleman in Bond street before the session was over one 
day — a rich man, whose voice is very much heard on the 
opposite side to that on which I sit in the House of Com- 
mons — but wdiose voice is not heard when on his legs 
but when he is cheering other speakers. (Laughter.) He said 
to me, "This is, after all, a sad business about the United 
States ; but still I think it is much better that thev should be 
split up. In twenty years (or fifty, I forget which it was he 
said) they will he so powerful that they will bully all Europe." 
And a distinguished member of the House of Commons, dis- 
tinguished there for his eloquence, distinguished more by his 
many writings — I mean Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton — he did not 
exactly express the hope, but he ventured on something like a 
prediction that the time w'ould come when there would be as 
man}' republics and states in America as you can count upon 
your fingers. Now, there cannot be a meaner motive than this 
motive that I am now speaking of in forming a judgment on 
this question — that it is better for us, for the people of England, 
or the Government of England, that the United States should 
be severed, and that that continent should be, like the continent 
of Europe, in many states, subject to the contentions and disas- 
ters w' ich have accompanied the history of the states of Eu- 
rope. I should say that if a man had a great heart wdthin him 
he would rather look forw^ard to the day when, from that point 
of land that is habitable nearest the pole to the shores of the 
great gulf, the whole of the vast continent might become one 
great federation of states, tliat, without a great army, without a 
great navy^ not mixing itself up with the entanglements of 
European politics, without custom-houses inside throughout the 
length and breadth of its territory, but with freedom every- 
where, equality everywhere, law everywhere, peace every- 
where, it would afford at last some hope that men were not for- 
saken of Heaven, and that the future of our race might bo 



23 

better than the past. (Loud cheevs.) It is a common observa- 
tion tliat our friends in /Vmerica are very irritable. I think 
tliat is very lilcely, as to a considerable number of them, to be 
quite true. Our friends in America are in a great struggle. 
There is nothing like it before in their history. No country in 
the world was ever more entitled, in my opinion, to the sympa- 
thy and forbearance of all friendly countries than are the 
United States at this moment. (Hear.) They have their news- 
papers that are no wiser than ours. (Laughter.) They have 
there some newspapers, one at least, which, up to the election 
of Mr. Lincoln, were his bitterest and unrelenting foes. When 
the war broke out it was not safe to take the line of Southern 
support, and they were obliged to turn round in support of the 
prevalent opinions of the country. But they undertook to 
serve the South in another way, and that was by exaggerating 
every difficulty and misstating every fact, if that could serve 
their object of creating distrust between the people of the 
ISTorthern States and the people of this United Kingdom, If 
the Times in this country has done all that it could to poison 
the minds of the people of England, and to irritate the minds 
of the people of America, the New Yorh Herald^ I am sorry 
to say, has done, I think, all that it could, or all that it dared, 
to provoke mischief between the Government of Washington 
and the Government in London. (Cheers.) Tliere is one thing 
which I must state where I think they have a solid reason to 
complain. I am very sorry to have to mention it, because it 
blames our present foreign minister, against whom I am not 
anxious to say a word, and recollecting his speech in the House 
of Commons, I should be slovv to conclude that he had any feel- 
ings hostile to the United States Government. (Hear, hear.) 
You recollect that, during the session, on the 1-ith May, a pro- 
clamation came out which acknowledged the South as a bellig- 
erent power, and proclaimed the neutrality of England. A little 
time before that, I forget how many days, Mr. Dallas, the last min- 
ister from the United States, had left Loudon for Liverpool and 
America. He did not wish to undertake any affairs connected 
with the government by which ho had not been appointed, the 
government of Mr. Lincoln, but to leave what had to be done 
to his successor, who was on his way, and whose arrival was 



2i 

daily expected. Mr. Adams, the present minister from the 
United States, is a man, if he lived in England, you would say 
was one of the noblest families of the country. I think that 
his father and his grandfather were Presidents of the United 
States. His grandfather was one of the great men who 
achieved the independence of the United States. There is no 
family in that country having more claims upon what I should 
call the veneration and afi'ection of the people than the family 
of Mr. Adams. Mr. Adams arrived in London on the night of 
the 13th of May. On the 14th that proclamation to which I 
have alluded was issued. It was known he was coming : he 
was not consulted ; it was not delayed for a day, though nothing 
pressed, that he might be notified about it. If communications 
of a friendly nature had taken j)lace with him, and with the 
American Government, they could have found no fault with 
this, because it was almost inevitable before the struggle had 
proceeded far that this proclamation would be issued. I have 
the very best reasons for knowing that there is no single thing that 
has happened during the course of these events that has created 
more surprise, more irritation, and more distrust in the United 
States with respect to this country, than the fact that that pro- 
clamation did not wait even one single day till the minister 
from America could come here, and till it could have been 
done with his consent and concurrence, and in that friendly 
manner that would have avoided all the unpleasantness that 
has occurred. (Cheers.) I am obliged to say — and I say it 
with the utmost pain — that without this country doing things 
which were hostile to the North, and without men expressing 
affection for slavery, and outward and open hatred for the 
Union, I say there has not been here that cordial and friendly 
neutrality which, if I had been a citizen of the United States, 
I should have expected. (Hear, hear.) And I say further, 
that if there has existed considerable irritation at that, that 
must be taken as a measure of the high appreciation which the 
people of those States place upon the opinion of the people of 
England. (Hear, hear.) If I had been addressing this au- 
dience ten days ago, so far as I know, I should have said just 
what I have said now. And, although there has been an un- 



25 

toward event, and circumstances are somewhat or even consider- 
ably altered, yet I have thought it desirable to make this state- 
ment, with the view, as far as I am able to do it, to improve 
the oi3inion in England, and to assuage, if there be any, the 
feelings of irritation in America, so that no further difficulties 
may arise in the progress of this unhappy strife. (Cheers.) But 
there has occurred an event which has been announced to us 
only a week ago, which is one of great importance, and it may 
be one of some peril. It is asserted that what is called inter- 
national law has been broken by the seizure of the Southern 
commissioners on board an English trading steamer by a steam- 
er of war of the United States. What is maritime law ? You 
have heard that the opinion of the law officers of the crown is 
in favor of this view of the case — that the law has been broken. 
I am not at all going to say that it has not. It would be im- 
prudent in me to state my opinion on a legal question that I 
have only partially examined against their opioion on a 
question which I presume they have carefully examined ; 
but this I say, that maritime law is not to be found in any 
act of Parliament ; it is not in so many clauses. You know 
it is difficult to find the law. I can ask the mayor and other 
magistrates whether it is not difficult to find the law when 
they have found the act of Parliament, and found the 
clause ; but when there is no act of Parliament and no clause 
you may imagine that the case is still more difficult. 
(Laughter.) Now, maritime law, international law, consists 
of opinions and precedents. For the most it is most unsettled ; 
the opinions are the opinions of men of difierent countries, 
given at different times ; the precedents are not always like 
each other ; the law is very unsettled, and for the most part I 
believe it to be exceedingly bad. Now, in past times, as you 
know from the histories you read, this country has been a fight- 
ing country. "We have been belligerents, and as belligerents we 
have carried maritime law by our own hand to a pitch that has 
been oppressive to foreign, and particularly to neutral nations. 
Now, for the first time in our history, almost for the last two 
hundred years, we are not belligerents, but neutrals, and there- 
fore we are disposed, perhaps, to take rather a difierent view of 
maritime and international law. The act which has been com- 



26 



mitted by the American steamer, in my opinion, wLetlier it is 
legal or not, is both impolitic and bad. (Hear, hear.) That is my 
opinion. I think it will turn out, and is almost certain, that so 
far as the taking of those men from that ship was concerned, it 
was wholly unknown to and unauthorized by the American 
Government : and that if the American Government believes, 
on the opinion of its law officers, that the act is illegal, I have 
no doubt that they will make fitting reparation — (applause) — 
for there is no government in the world that has so strenuously 
insisted upon the modification of international law, and been so 
anxious to be guided always by the most moderate and merci- 
ful interpretation of that law. (Cheers.) Our great adviser, 
the Times newspaper, has been persuading the people that this 
is but one of a series of acts w^hich denote the determination of 
the Washington government to pick a quarrel with the people 
of England. Did you ever know anybody who was not very 
nearly dead-drunk, who, having as much upon his hands as he 
could manage, would offer to fight every body about him. 
(Laughter.) Do you believe that the United States Govern- 
ment, presided over by President Lincoln, so constitutional in 
all his acts, so moderate as he has been, representing at this 
moment that great party in the United States, happily now in 
the ascendency, which has alwa^^s been speaking in favor of 
peace, and speaking in favor of England — (hear, hear) — do yon 
belive that that government, having upon its hands now an in- 
surrection of the most formidable character in tlie South, would 
invite the armies and the fleets of England to combine with 
that insurrection, and it might be so to exasperate the struggle 
as to render it impossible that the Union should ever again be 
restored ? (Hear, hear.) 1 say that single statement, whether 
it come from a public writer or a public speaker, is enough to 
stamp him for ever with the character of being an insidious 
enemy of both countries. (Cheers.) Now, what have we seen 
during the last week? People have not been, I am told — I 
have not seen much of it — quite so calm as sensible men should 
be. Here is a question of law. I will undertake to say that 
when you hear from the United States Government (if they think 
the act legal), when you have a statement of their view of the 
case, they will show you that fifty years ago, during the war at 



27 

tliat time there were scores of cases that were at least as bad as this, 
and some infinitely worse. If it were not so late at night, and I am 
not anxious now to go into this question further, I could easily 
place before you cases of wonderful outrage committed by us 
when we were at war, and many for which, I am afraid, little 
or no reparation was offered. But let us bear this in mind, 
that during this struggle, incidents and accidents will happen. 
Bear in mind the advice of Lord Stanley, so opportune and 
so judicious. Don't let your newspapers, or your public speak- 
ers, or any man take you off your guard, and bring you into 
that frame of mind under which your government, if it desires 
war, can have it with the public assent, or if it does not desire 
war may be driven to engage in it, for one may be as fatal 
and as evil as the other. What can be now more monstrous 
than that we, who call ourselves to some extent an educated, 
a moral, and Christian nation, the moment that any accident of 
this kind occurs, before we have made a representation to the 
American Government, before we have had a word from them 
in reply, are all up in arms, every sword is leaping from its 
scabbard, and every man is looking out for his pistols and his 
blunderbuss. Why, I think the conduct pursued, — and I have 
no doubt it is pursued by a certain class in America just the 
same, — is much more the conduct of savages than of Christian- 
ized and civilized men. (Hear.) No ! Let us be calm. You 
recollect how we were dragged into the Russian war — (cheers) — 
drifted into it. You know that I, at least, have not upon my 
head any guilt of that fearful war. (Cheers.) You know that 
it cost a hundred millions of money to this country, that it cost 
at least the lives of 40,000 Englishmen, that it disturbed your 
trade, that it nearly doubled the armies of Europe, that it placed 
the relations of Europe on a much less peaceful footing than 
before, and that it did not effect one single thing of all those 
that it was promised to effect. (Applause.) I recollect speak- 
ing within the last two years to a man whose name I have 
already mentioned. Sir James Graham, in the House of Com- 
mons. He was a minister at the time of that war. He was 
reminding me of a severe onslaught which I had made on him 
and Lord Palmerston for attending a dinner at the Eeform 
Club when Sir C. Napier was appointed to command the fleet 



28 

in the Baltic ; and he remarked what a thrashing I had given 
them in the House. I said, " Sir James, tell me candidly, didn't 
you deserve it ?" He said, " Well, you were entirely right about 
that war ; we were entirely wrong, and we never should have 
gone into it." (Applause.) This is exactly what everybody 
will say if you go into a war about this business, when it is 
over ; when your sailors and your soldiers, so many of them 
as may be slaughtered, are gone to their last account ; when 
your taxes are increased, your business permanently, it may be, 
injured, and imbittered feelings for generations created between 
America and England. Then your statesmen will tell you that 
we ought not to have gone into the war. But they will very 
likely say, as many of them tell me, " What could we do in 
the frenzy of the public mind ?" Let them not add to the 
frenzy, and let us be careful that nobody drives us into that 
frenzy. (Hear, hear.) Again, I say, remembering the past, 
remembering at this moment the perils of a friendly people, 
seeing the difficulties by which they are surrounded, let us, I 
entreat of you, see if there be any real moderation in the people 
of England, and if magnanimity, so often to be found amongst 
individuals, is not absolutely wanting in a great nation. (Hear, 
hear.) Government may discuss this matter. They may ar- 
range it. They may arbitrate it. I have received here since I 
came into the room a despatch from a friend of mine in London 
referring to this matter. I believe some portion of it is in 
the papers this evening. He states that General Scott, whom 
you knew by name, who has come over from America to 
France, being in a bad state of health, the general lately of 
the American armies, and a man of reputation in that country 
hardly second to that which the Duke of Wellington held dur- 
ing his lifetime in this country — General Scott has written a 
letter on the American difficulty. He denies that the Washing- 
ton Cabinet had ordered the seizure of the Southern Com- 
missioners, even if under the protection of a neutral flag. 
As to Slidell and Mason being or not being contraband, the 
general answers for it that if Mr. Seward cannot satisfy 
Earl Kussell that they bore that character Earl Russell will 
be able to convince Mr. Seward that they were not. He 
pledges himself, that if this government cordially agree with 



29 

that of the United States in establishing the immnnity of 
neutrals from the oppressive right of search and seizure on 
suspicion, the Cabinet of Wasliington will not hesitate to 
purchase such a boon to peaceful trading vessels. (Cheers.) Be- 
fore I sit down I must ask jou, What is this people, about which 
so many men in England at this moment are writing and speak- 
ing, anil thinking with harshness — I think with injustice — if not 
with great bitterness ? Two centuries ago multitudes of the 
people of this country found a refuge on the Nftrth American 
continent, escaping from the tyranny of the Stuarts and from 
the bigotry of Laud. Many noble spirits from our country en- 
deavored to establish great experiments in favor of human free- 
dom on that continent. Bancroft, the greatest historian of his 
own country, has said, in his graphic and emphatic language, 
" The history of the colonization of America is the history of 
the crimes of Europe." From that time down to our own 
period America has admitted the wanderers from every clime. 
Since 1815, the time which many here remember, and which is 
within my lifetime, more than three millions of persons have 
emigrated from the United Kingdom to the United States. 
During the fifteen years from 1845 or 1846 to 1859 or 1860— a 
time so recent that we all remember the most trivial circum- 
stances and events that have happened in that time — during 
those fifteen years more than 2,320,000 persons left the shores 
of the United Kingdom as emigrants for the States of N^orth 
America. (Hear, hear.) At this very moment, then, there are 
millions in the United States who personally, or whose parents 
have at^oue time been citizens of this country with persons, 
some of the oldest of these whom I am now addressing. They 
found a home in the far West. They subdued the wilderness. 
They met with plenty there, wdiich was not afi'orded them in 
their native country, and they are become a great people. There 
may be those persons in England who are jealous of the States. 
There may be men who dislike democracy, and who hate a re- 
public. There may even be those whose sympathies warm to- 
wards the slave oligarchy of the South. But of this I am cer- 
tain, that only misrepresentation the most gross, or calumny the 
most wicked, can sever the tie which unites the great mass of 
the people of this country with their friends and brethren be- 



30 

yond the Atlantic. (Applause.) Wlietlier the Union will be 
restored or not, or the South will achieve an unhonored inde- 
pendence or not, I know not, and I predict not. But this I 
think I know, that in a few years, a very few years, the twenty 
millions of free men in the North will be thirty millions or fifty 
millions — a population equal to or exceeding that of this king- 
dom. When that time comes, I pray that it may not Idc said 
among them that in the darkest hour of their country's trials, 
England, the fand of their fathers, looked on with icy coldness, 
and saw unmoved the perils and calamities of her children. 
As for me, 1 have but this to say: I am one in this audience, 
and but one in the citizenship of this country. But if all other 
tongues are silent, mine shall speak for that policy which gives 
hope to the bondsmen of the South, and tends to generous 
thoughts, and geneious words, and generous deeds between the 
two great nations who speak the English language, and from 
their origin are alike entitled to the English name. 

The honorable gentleman resumed his seat amid great cheer- 
ing, having spoken for an hour and forty minutes. 



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